I'm about to sounds like a pompous ass myself, so we're both in the same boat:

Being a practicioner of iai or ken is one of those all-consuming things that can't be understood unless it is immersed in, for a significant period of time. It kind of chafes me, the number of folks who get (what I refer to as) "Highlander Syndrome"- "buy a crappy sword and you're an expert decapitator". It chafes me even more, when they proffer their "advice" on swordsmanship to other amateurs.

This syndrome is even more pronounced in the Martial Arts community- thousands, if not tens of thousands, of instructors who have absolutely no formal sword training, buy a sword and a book on swordsmanship, and accept money in order to teach their students sword work! They legitimize themselves by showing off their rank certificates, but really, they're just as much amateurs as are their students.

There are, perhaps, two or three thousand legitimate Japanese swordsmanship practicioners in the US and Canada- this number includes all legitimate instructors (numbering in the middle-hundreds), and their currently active students.